B.C. lake collision kills 1

One person is dead and two people remain in hospital with serious injuries following a collision between a speedboat and a houseboat Saturday night on Shuswap Lake in the B.C. Interior.

The collision occurred near Magna Bay on the north shore of the lake at about 11:20 p.m. when a 6.25-metre runabout collided head-on with a 12-metre houseboat, the RCMP confirmed in a news release Sunday. 

The collision occurred shortly after a number of boaters had begun to disperse following an annual fireworks display.

The collision vaulted the runabout directly into the main cabin of the houseboat, the Mounties said, killing the houseboat's operator, 53, from nearby Anglemont.

Other boaters immediately came to assist, rendering first aid to the occupants of the houseboat and speedboat. The two vessels were then towed to shore where emergency personnel met them, the release said. 

There were 13 people aboard the privately owned houseboat and three on the speedboat, the RCMP release said. 

Eight were injured and taken to Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, where two remain in care. The injuries ranged "from minor bruises to fractures and head injuries," said RCMP Cpl. Dan Moskaluk.

"I can confirm that there were eight people taken to the Royal Inland Hospital emergency department," Interior Health spokeswoman Cathy Renkas said earlier Sunday. "And two people have been admitted to hospital."

A nearby resort owner said the lake was filled with boats when the crash occurred.

Local realtor Al Christopherson went down to see the wreckage on Sunday.

"A typical 12- by 44-foot type of personal-use houseboat," Christopherson said. "But when you look through the side windows of the houseboat you can clearly see what looks to be about a 19-foot fiberglas boat — a white one with a blue stripe on it — clearly, completely, internal inside the houseboat."